Monday, October 5, 2009

Stopping It Before It Starts

Since beginning to wean off Zoloft I've had some minor anxiety attacks. I say minor because I was able to calm down and get through them fairly quickly. I must admit, though, a few times I have definitely found myself thinking that it would be so much easier to just stop weaning off the Zoloft, to just keep taking 100 mg for the rest of my life. But then I do some breathing exercises and talk to Liz and take a walk and just keep gently encouraging myself to do things on my "has reduced your anxiety before" list, and so far it's worked.

I think a big part of my anxiety attacks stem from me overreacting and then just running with that overreaction. If I focus on staying in the present and paying attention to my actions, I find that I am much less likely to overreact and then, in turn, much less likely to get carried away on an anxiety attack.

I'll leave you with this story I found on the FML website. It's quite funny and shows how reacting before thinking is generally bad.